Thousands of Syrian refugees fleeing Egypt by boat, Italy says

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Coast guard help immigrants on 19 August 2013 in the Catania's harbor after being rescued off the Italian coast. (Photo: AFP - Dario Azzaro)

Published Friday, September 13, 2013

Around 3,300 Syrians have arrived in Italy by boat over recent weeks, many fleeing troubled Egypt where they had first found a haven from war, the UN refugee agency said Friday.

UNHCR spokesman Adrian Edwards said that the bulk of the refugees were families, and arrived over the past 40 days, mostly in Sicily. Some 670 landed in the past week.

"The majority have come from Egypt," Edwards told reporters.

UNHCR estimates that 4,600 Syrians have arrived by sea in Italy since 2013 began, a massive increase on last year's total of 369.

"Fundamentally, the outflow is a symptom of the conflict inside Syria on the one hand and the strains on asylum in the surrounding region," Edwards said.

"In Egypt we have seen changes in the environment over the last month or so, including the tightened visa regulations, and that has resulted in some Syrians moving on elsewhere," he added.

UNHCR repeatedly has expressed fears for Syrian war exiles in crisis-hit Egypt since Islamist president Mohammed Mursi was ousted in July, amid arbitrary arrests of refugees and rising anti-Syrian rhetoric.

A vocal backer of Syria's opposition, Mursi had cut diplomatic ties with the government of President Bashar al-Assad.

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